Borut
In the spirit of people getting together for the holidays, I figured I’d write about the notion of collective software sharing between indie game developers. Indies forming a co-op of sorts – something I’ve thought would be of great value to indies, so I’m kind of surprised we haven’t seen yet.
In the past couple years, the industry again has become a survivable place for small developers thanks to a variety of factors: digital distribution, broader markets, market niches unaddressed by major publishers, as well as a growing set of existing software tools/middleware.
Played through Global Conflict: Palestine this weekend. A lot of reviewers these days complain about the simplicity of moral choices in games like Bioshock – well, the words simplicity, moral, and choice have probably never been used in the same sentence with respect to Palestine. And only rarely the word game…
In honor of the holiday, I figured I’d write briefly about the scariest portion of a game I’ve ever played.
That game would be Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, developed by the now unfortunately defunct Troika Games (but note how they deftly handled the required double colon, double subtitle with the V:TM license via the dash).
In particular, I’m referring to the Ocean House Hotel level (which, uncoincidentally, won an award from Gamespot for level design of the year). The level is loosely a ode to The Shining (it involves an old California hotel – those are inherently creepy for some unknown reason - and mystery surrounding a murdered family).
I played through it in an hour. I wasn’t just on the edge of my seat playing it, I was one the edge of adrenaline shock. My heart was pounding so loudly I remembering needing to take a breather in the middle because I didn’t think I could actually survive without one. While I may have consciously debated the physiological risk, I couldn’t stop playing.
Nothing has ever quite scared me in that way, keeping me on edge, quite as much, whether it was a movie, book, or general appreciation for the horror of modern suburban living. Plus it has the most creative (well, narratively appropriate) use of a physics sim to date. If you have some time, check it out (the game’s available via Steam).
Over on MTV’s Multiplayer blog, Stephen Totilo discusses death as a theme in games, by way of a great interview with Harvey Smith, Will Wright, David Jaffe, & CliffyB where they discuss the feasibility of exploring something as serious as death in games.
Totilo thinks Fire Emblem, with its permanent death for characters in your party, addresses a lot of that, and I have to agree. However, those mechanics are prohibitive to making that game accessible to a lot of people, which has in turn become part of the impetus behind Nintendo’s meddling with the mechanic for the Wii. They may have achieved greater accessibility, but it does sound like the changes also steal from the emotional impact.
My own example that I’ve played very recently is Viva Piñata. Now, it deals with death from a very different perspective - if I had a kid around the age that they might be asking questions about death (5? 6?), I’d sit down and play it with them. Death in the game is just part of the circle of life. You attract piñatas to your garden (like by growing things), you can name them, care for them, build houses for them…